What a month!

Here are a couple of pictures of Drew that I took today...his 11-month birthday!

Here's Drew chillin' in the hammock on an absolutely perfect fall day in New Mexico.


A view of some of the "Special Shapes" balloons as they inflate for a Balloon Glow at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

More balloons at the Glow.


Stu and Bryce enjoying the Glow.


My personal favorite...Arabelle the Cow.

Bryce got to meet a Storm Trooper at the Darth Vader balloon. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but it was a very cool balloon.

Well, we've almost made it through October! Sometimes I'm not sure how! The month started out benignly enough...we made plans to attend the Balloon Fiesta, as usual, and enjoyed the amazing weather we've had for the past month or so.

As we posted last time, we have decided to build a new home in Rio Rancho, and we realized that we had better get in gear and start getting this one ready to go on the market. We made a list of "projects", and despite our best efforts, it sometimes seems never-ending! We're painting, organizing, purging, replacing windows and countertops, and still trying to run a household (somewhat sanely) for a family of four. Oh, I also forgot to mention that I decided last summer that October would be a great month to have some surgery. More on that later.

As we got started on all of the home improvements, of course the boys got sick. We've had ear infections, stomach viruses, and now it seems that Drew has developed some as yet undetermined food allergies. Mid-month, I had my thyroid gland removed, because it's had a nodule growing on it for about 8 years. It was a fairly minor surgery (only one night in the hospital) but it still meant leaving Stu on his own with the boys overnight. He did great, and we can't neglect to thank both Karen and my mom, because they both helped us out immensely. What would we do without grandmas?

Now it's almost Halloween, and we're looking forward to finishing up our major projects and getting this house sold! We're also very much looking forward to going to Montana for Thanksgiving. We'll finally get to meet our new niece, Elsa. We can't wait.

Here's hoping everyone has a fun, SAFE Halloween. Enjoy all of that yummy candy. We'll post more soon...let's be careful out there! :)

Birthday Boy!

Bryce shows off his new Transformers t-shirt and his special "Birthday Boy" seat at the party.

Bryce & Drew loved the gym time at the party!

Grandma gives Drew a hand. Love the look on his face!

Bryce successfully blew out all 4 candles on his Transformers cake.

The Crane family on the future site of Casa de Crane!

Bryce is 4! We had a wonderful time celebrating with him at The Little Gym. Bryce invited about 10 of his friends to play at the gym and eat pizza & cake. This was the first birthday party he's had at somewhere other than our home, and it was a hit with Bryce, Mom, & Dad. No clean up! :)

The other big development of the past few weeks is our decision to build a new home. We've been eyeing a new development in Rio Rancho (the city where the Intel plant is located) for the past couple of years, and when sales opened up recently, we decided to take the plunge. We're very excited about the new house, although the first item on our agenda will be selling our current home. The market has slowed a bit in Albuquerque, but we're optimistic that we'll be able to sell before our new house is completed. We'll send out information about our new address, etc. as our move approaches, but the current estimate for the completion isn't until May. We'll definitely update the blog with the construction progress. Stay tuned...

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is happening this week, and we're planning to attend a "Balloon Glow" this evening with the boys. If you've never had the chance to get to the Fiesta, you should plan to visit our new house next October! It's truly an amazing experience. We'll try to post some pictures of this year's Fiesta soon.

We hope October has been a good month for everyone so far! Until next time, let's be careful out there!